CHILDREN as young as 10 are playing "Russian roulette" by sniffing glue, paint and other household solvents, a report from child welfare campaigners found today.
The "hidden" problem of solvent abuse kills more children than drugs every year, ChildLine and the National Children's Bureau (NCB) warned.
Both groups urged ministers to change the law to minimise the amounts of dangerous solvents contained in household products.
And schools must teach about the dangers of solvent abuse during routine drug education, they said.
The report's author Simon Blake, from NCB, said most people knew about the dangers of glue sniffing in the 1980s.
"But over the last 20 years it has slowly slipped from public view and has been forgotten," he said.
"Yet volatile substance abuse continues to cause death and harm to many.
"With children playing Russian roulette with their lives it is no longer tenable to ignore volatile substance abuse."
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The report found that many children started sniffing glue, nail varnish or correcting fluid from an early age because these substances were so easily available in the home.
Children often felt scared and ashamed of their behaviour, the study found.
This "taboo" nature of the issue led many children to risk death by inhaling solvents on their own, with no-one to help if anything goes wrong.
The report, Dangerous Highs, analysed more than 350 calls to the ChildLine helpline about solvent abuse.
Many youngsters were not simply trying to "get high" but using solvents to escape from traumas in their lives such as child abuse or unhappiness at school.
The report said these children needed more emotional support, with education programmes targeted particularly at people in young offender institutions and care homes.
ChildLine chief executive Carole Easton said it was "difficult to read" the accounts of children who ring the helpline with their stories of solvent abuse.
"It is crucial that we face up to the fact that children are abusing volatile substances to escape the pain their lives are causing them.
How do YOU think we should tackle the problem of solvent abuse in kids? Have your say.
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I don't know how your going to combat this abuse, but if any young kids are reading this then I'd like to inform you that my 15-year-old nephew died sniffing gas - the first time (and last time) he ever tried it, sometimes you don't get a second chance
I sniffed gas and deodorant when I was 14 and totally regret it. I sniffed for about a year before getting caught at school and so glad that I did as I could have killed myself (nearly did one time). Kids need to be aware and educated about solvent abuse as it is so dangerous it can kill you the first time you try it. I'm 34 now and have 2 children aged 13 and 11 and I am always telling the dangers of smoking, drinking, sniffing etc and I hope that I have got the message through. It is down to the parents to talk to their children about dangers in life and I have a very good relationship with both my children and hope that they can come and talk to me about anything